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Monday, July 1, 2013

Ecotourism Policy in Nepal

The tourism Ministry in Nepal is primarily responsible for tourism planning and policy andother important tasks like licensing, regulations and overall monitoring. Another importantinstitution is Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) which also has a significant role in thedevelopment of tourism in Nepal by conducting planning, research, and developing productsand marketing for sustainable tourism. The National Planning Commission (NPC) is also akey institution which has significant influence in tourism policy formulation. The commissionhas regarded tourism as a key sector for economic benefit and poverty alleviation in its fiveyearly plans.It is very implicit that tourism in Nepal is one of the main economic contributors of thecountry. Therefore it should be managed scientifically through the formulation of effectiveplanning and policy to support sustainable development. Respecting this idea, the Eighth FiveYear Plan (1992-1997) had given main emphasis on tourism to boost the national economyby maximizing foreign exchange earnings and the Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002) alsoenvisaged the policy and implementation strategy for establishing Nepal as a ‘premiumtourist destination of the world’ with introduction of ecotourism including the strategy ofdeveloping village tourism, new trekking sites and other required tourism infrastructure(NPC, 2003; MOPE, 2004). Furthermore the plan also gave stress to review of tourismpolicies, related regulations, institutional arrangements and coordination, and overallassessment of tourism impacts (ibid).Also acknowledging the negative impacts of tourism, government of Nepal has alsodeveloped a strategy to promote ecotourism and introduced a legislation of EnvironmentalImpact Assessment (EIA) in the industry. But the Ninth Plan states that tourism policydevelopment and implementation is not as easy as it is envisioned in the plan. Thus, Banskotaand et al. (1995) say that the tourism policy and institutional framework is not effective andthe consequence of this brings lack of coordination of supply and demand in which privatesectors of tourism generally aim to earn much more income than on the conservation side(Banskota and et al, 1995). Lack of policy implementation, especially in the case ofecotourism in Nepal, creates major problems in the whole industry as well as in other sectors.